Thanks Deb! I think I bought some seeds for that when I was in town yesterday! The seeds were all half price, so I grabbed a bunch!

What a beautiful property you have, Natalie!

I can see lots of issues with trying to seed that big hill- blowing in the wind, washing away with rain among them. Also, what kind of vegetation is growing there now? Seeds might not reach soil through thick vegetation, or might just be shaded too much by existing vegetation to grow if they do germinate. You might need to remove that stuff to get seeds to grow there.

Does that vegetation remain in winter? Seeding in winter might be better if no vegetation is there.

Karen

Karen, I've only lived here 3 weeks, so I'm not sure what will happen. When I was here in March and tossed seeds, I could easily see the dirt on the ground. There was some vegetation, but it was mostly clumps of grass. It's much more filled in now though. We were also here at the end of January, which is when we put the offer on the place, but I didn't get a good look at the hillside at the time. The property is south facing though, so I'm sure that the sun is ample. There was snow in January too, which melted off quickly, but I'm not sure if seeding is a good idea that time of year. I'd probably slide off the hillside and die!

Well then maybe that's not a good option

Even if you can stick a few plants in here and there and then see if any reseed it will give you an idea of whether or not you may have to rethink your strategy. I haven't forgotten you, it's just been raining every day!

That is my plan Arlene. Decided that it's probably a better way to go at this point, and if they reseed, it will take a lot of the work out of it.

Lucky you with the rain!

I am not sure someone's mentioned these already

larkspur (Consolida not Delphinium)
Lychnis/Silene coronaria
Euphorbia marginata
Digitalis
Campanula persicifolia
Campanula medium
Poppies
Adenophora (don't know which one, but it's very invasive around here, both in seeds and roots!)
Echinacea (coneflower)
Salvia (wild, purple flowers)
Linaria purpurea

These are the ones I can tell I felt sorry for planting in my garden !!!

Calin, thanks for the great list!

I was going to have a friend send me some Larkspur seed, because she got the seed from me originally, for her large colony of Larkspur, and I found out tonight that it is very toxic to cattle. I do not raise cattle, but may in the future. Several neighbors raise cattle though, and I can't take a change on getting it started here because of that. I have such a love/hate relationship with the plant. I hated that hundreds of seedlings were still growing in my flower beds for 5 years after I had completely removed it from the yard, but it would have been so perfect here! I also really love how pretty it is, so I'm disappointed that I won't be growing it.

I hadn't thought of Lychnis or Silene coronaria, and I think it's a good one for here! I had never heard of Euphorbia marginata, so I looked it up. It's another poisonous one, but I do like it. I'll have to look into that one further since it's drought tolerant, which I need. I know that Digitalis is also poisonous, but I'll grow it in my flower beds. I brought 2 plants with me, and lots of seed. It's another favorite. If it doesn't make wildlife or cattle sick, I want to try growing it on the hill. I saved lots of seeds from my plants for it.

I brought a nice big Campanula persicifolia with me that I started from seed last year, and have some seeds left. I have the worst luck with Campanula medium, even though I really love it! It's one of my favorite flowers, but I just can't seem to grow it, even as an annual. I may have to give it another try though. I saw one at the local nursery. Have you started it from seed? I always see seeds for sale, but figured that I couldn't get it to grow since I could never keep the bought plants alive.

I think one of the Adenophora's may be a native plant here. My brain is overloaded, but I think I saw it on the native plant list tonight. Love it!

The others, I've either brought seed with me that I collected from my own plants, or I purchased them a few days ago. I'm glad that someone has found them to be good at self-sowing, since I had almost no problem with that, other than the poppies. I think in 10 years, I may have had only one Echinacea reseed! I have a feeling that the birds got all of the seeds!

Some heavy re-seeders I've experienced include:
Golden Rod
New England Aster (wild asters in general)
Annual Sunflower - Kong
Dame's Rocket
Nigella
Fall Clematis
Lemon Balm
Hummingbird Vine
Maximilian's Sunflower
Bidens
Poppy
Mints
To a lesser extent - Rudbeckia and Coneflower, Blackberry Lily, Physalis (Ground Cherry), Chives, wild Blue Phlox.
Many of these might have different colonizing behavior patterns due to geology unique to your new area.

Natalie, I will refer to this thread when I'm putting your package together, I have several of the aforementioned and some in seedlings...

I thought I would be able to get out to you this week but it has flown by. We have company coming in from out of state on Sat. for four days and a new grandson expected no later than Monday if he doesn't come on his own before that so, I haven't forgotten!

jmorth, Thanks for the awesome list! I think the only ones I have for sure are Nigella, and Poppy. I've never even heard of a couple of the others! I'll get busy looking them up!

Arlene, no need to worry at all! This can easily wait until fall, since it's getting ready to get too hot to do much planting here anyway. I've got a huge order or seeds coming from Diane's seeds, and bought way too many at the store the other day on a 1/2 off sale. So, I'll be busy planting stuff up in pots, which I'm thankful to have a lot of, and this would be a great fall project. I have a greenhouse too, so I can also winter sow some of my seeds. Congratulations on the future grandson! How exciting!!! Get through that first! I checked the Asclepias speciosa (Idaho Milkweed) yesterday, and the seeds are starting to ripen, and if I'm lucky, I can get lots of them. I also found a large group of them growing a couple of miles down our road. They are in some shade, and aren't close to setting seed yet, so one way or the other, I'll hopefully get some!

I spotted something growing down the hill today, and it was blanket flower! This is in the area that I actually tossed some blanket flower seeds, but I'm sure that there is no way that the plants would have grown to be that large and blooming already, since it was at the end of March. It's just funny that these came up in the same spot! I'm thrilled though! Finally, some color! The bad part is that I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking when I was tossing the seeds, and walked down the hill a little farther than I had planned. I had to get out the binoculars to see what it was. Hopefully the seeds will grow there too, and reseed closer to the house.

I will have fresh seeds of silene coronaria
I have both the bright and the blush colors
they do well in dry areas and should like your hillside.

Cinda, Those are beautiful! Love the color! It's another one I hadn't heard of before, and it doesn't look like I ordered seed for it either. I'd love to have some if you have enough. Just let me know what I owe!

Here's the seed that I bought from Diane's Seeds.

Amaranth 'Hopi Red Dye'
Amaranth 'Love Lies Bleeding'
Antirrhinum braun-blanquetii (Perennial Snapdragon)
Asperula orientalis (Blue Woodruff)
Balsam 'Camellia Flowered'
Calenula officinalis 'Zeolights'
Campanula latifolia 'Brantwood'
Centaurea cyanus 'Tall Mix'
Cleome spinosa 'Violet Queen'
Coreopsis basalis (Golden Wave)
Coreopsis tinctoria 'Dwarf Red'
Coreopsis tinctoria 'Radiata Mix'
Cosmos bipinnatus 'Sensation Mix'
Cynoglossum amabile (Chinese Forget-Me-Not)
Feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium)
Hyssopus officinalis
Linaria maroccana (Toadflax)
Lychnis chalcedonica (Maltese Cross)
Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina'
Papaver paeoniflorum Lavender
Ratibida columnaris Yellow (Prairie Coneflower)
Rudbeckia triloba
Sidalcea malviflora 'Rosanna'
Sweet Pea 'Matucana'
Verbascum phoeniceum 'Violetta'
Verbena bonariensis

This is about 1/4 of the ones I got in town the other day. Can't find the bag with the rest.

Blue Flax
Calendula (Pink Surprise)
Coreopsis
Echinacea
Gloriosa Daisy
Hollyhock (Summer Carnival)
Nigella
Rudbeckia (Indian Summer)
Scabiosa
Sunflower (Mammoth Russian)

I will send a tree mail when I collect the seeds

Thanks Cinda! Love your Chinchilla!

Holy cow, you really did get a bunch os seeds! What great picks. I was going to send some plants of some of the stuff so if the seeds don't work, but if you got the gaillardia to take, you'll probably be fine. Still, i'll surprise you! Most of the stuff is really tough so you should be able to plant now even though it's getting hot. It's super hot here.

I got a lot of seed for my money, so I was happy about that. A few of those, I bought multiples of because I love them so much! I am going to start some in pots this time, just to make sure I can get them growing. I can't wait to hear about your new grandson when he arrives!

I have several silene coronaria, I will gladly add one to the surprise package. They are perfect for your hill!